Delhi to issue voter identity cards to pavement, night shelter dwellers
19 March 2013 6:48 AM IST
There’s good news for pavement dwellers and those living in night shelters in the national capital. The Delhi government is all set to give them the right to vote. Responding to a question posed by Congress MLA Parlad Singh Sawhney during the Question Hour at the Assembly, Delhi Election minister Ramakant Goswami, spoke about the plan to issue voter identity cards to these homeless people.
He further explained that according to the Guidelines of the Election Commission of India, ‘No one shall be deprived of a voter identity card, even if he or she is homeless.’
The minister said that ‘There are nearly 14 lakh dubious voters in the national capital’. The Delhi electoral office had recently conducted a door-to-door survey that had revealed that around 11 per cent of the total electorate exist only on paper. At present, Delhi has 1,22,60,341 voters. The survey also revealed that 6,60,407 of these voters have either moved away or do not exist at their given addresses while 78,217 were found to have died and 30,158 were repeats.
BJP MLA Sat Prakash Rana pointed out that it is known that a few touts are active in making fake voter identity cards for their clients. He asked the Delhi government whether anything was being done to check them. Similar questions were also posed by BJP MLA Kulwant Singh Rana. But Goswami failed to answer such questions satisfactorily.
Questions over dubious voters got worse when MLA Mukesh Sharma said, ‘I know of a village in a neighboring state, where the entire population of the village have voter identity cards of Delhi. During elections they cast their votes both in Delhi as well as in their own state. The government should take appropriate action to check such things.’
The chief whip of the ruling party Kunwar Karan Singh blamed the electoral office for the name of 15,000 voters having been deleted from the list in the past years.
But the minister explained that officials first go on a door-to-door survey to check the identities of the voters. If they are not available, their names are displayed on the SDM office notice board for a week and if there is no response from the voter in that period, his/her name is deleted from the voters’ list.
The question remains however, about how the voter gets to know that his name is being displayed on the notice board.
He further explained that according to the Guidelines of the Election Commission of India, ‘No one shall be deprived of a voter identity card, even if he or she is homeless.’
The minister said that ‘There are nearly 14 lakh dubious voters in the national capital’. The Delhi electoral office had recently conducted a door-to-door survey that had revealed that around 11 per cent of the total electorate exist only on paper. At present, Delhi has 1,22,60,341 voters. The survey also revealed that 6,60,407 of these voters have either moved away or do not exist at their given addresses while 78,217 were found to have died and 30,158 were repeats.
BJP MLA Sat Prakash Rana pointed out that it is known that a few touts are active in making fake voter identity cards for their clients. He asked the Delhi government whether anything was being done to check them. Similar questions were also posed by BJP MLA Kulwant Singh Rana. But Goswami failed to answer such questions satisfactorily.
Questions over dubious voters got worse when MLA Mukesh Sharma said, ‘I know of a village in a neighboring state, where the entire population of the village have voter identity cards of Delhi. During elections they cast their votes both in Delhi as well as in their own state. The government should take appropriate action to check such things.’
The chief whip of the ruling party Kunwar Karan Singh blamed the electoral office for the name of 15,000 voters having been deleted from the list in the past years.
But the minister explained that officials first go on a door-to-door survey to check the identities of the voters. If they are not available, their names are displayed on the SDM office notice board for a week and if there is no response from the voter in that period, his/her name is deleted from the voters’ list.
The question remains however, about how the voter gets to know that his name is being displayed on the notice board.
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